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Kravits article about Danny... (Vnzla81 you'll want to skip this) :)

By my unofficial count, Danny Granger has been traded 1,637 times on Indiana Pacers message boards. Traded for Eric Gordon. Traded for a fun-pack of Cheetos. Traded constantly.

Which is why it's probably good that Larry Bird runs the Indiana Pacers, and not Joe From Kokomo or Cheezy Beef.

It's time to stop talking about all the things Granger doesn't do really well and talk, at least for one minute, about the thing he does really well:

Score.

Like he did Thursday night, scoring 32 points in the Pacers' 93-88 victory over the New Jersey Nets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The guy will drive the message-board denizens mad (sometimes Bird and coach Frank Vogel, too), but when the game is on the line, there is nobody else on this team who is better suited to win a game.

"Any time somebody is sort of the face of the franchise that isn't winning, like we hadn't won for a couple of years, they're going to nitpick every little thing he doesn't do,'' Vogel said. "But you've got to appreciate what he does do.''

Here's when some of us knew that the Pacers could not afford to move Granger: last year's playoff series against the Chicago Bulls, when Granger averaged 21.6 points and never scored fewer than 19 against the best defensive team in the league.

The playoffs are a different animal than the regular season. Defenses take away your first option, your second and your third. Enter Granger.

"You can run all the action you want, but a lot of possessions come down to the last few seconds of the shot clock, and you've got to have a guy who can create his own,'' Vogel said. "And we've got a few of those.''

Over time, Paul George has a chance to be one of those guys, but for now, he's still not assertive enough on a consistent basis. On nights like Thursday, he's expending all his energy on the other end of the floor slowing Nets guard Deron Williams.

The Pacers' blessing and curse are the same thing: They don't have a mega-star who can take over in the final moments like a D-Wade or a Kobe or, when he feels like it, LeBron James. Granger is as close to being that player as the Pacers have.

Yet the next time Granger has one of those 6-for-20 games, Noblesville Marty will deal him for a dented rim.

"Nature of the beast,'' Granger said, laughing. "Nature of sports. People are always trying to find something. I understand that.''

Fans have got to be a little bit patient before they move Granger to Cleveland for the Ghost of Paul Mokeski: This is the first time in his career he's been surrounded by teammates who can score. This is a transition.

"This is much easier,'' Granger said. "It's nice. I don't have to go out there and try to score 25. I can rely on other guys and do other things to help us win.''

OK, so Granger is not a superstar. He's a jump stop short of being a star. There are still too many things he doesn't do well. He is a "volume shooter,'' another stupid term that makes me more ornery than dyspeptic referee Joey Crawford.

But with the game on the line, the Pacers hanging on to a tenuous 88-84 lead, Granger took the ball strong to the basket, and while he missed the shot, he broke down New Jersey's defense. Roy Hibbert got the rebound and got fouled on the follow. Ballgame.

In a normal 82-game schedule, there aren't all that many big games. In the condensed 66-game schedule, they're all big, and they're only getting bigger with the newly-revitalized Knicks and the evergreen Boston Celtics coming up behind the Pacers.

The Pacers have to make things happen and they need to do it now, looking at the softest schedule stretch of the season.

Get this: The Pacers' next five games will come against three teams who came into Thursday night with a combined record of 20-64.

"This is a chance for us to rip off a couple of wins in a row,'' Granger said.

If the Pacers had fallen to New Jersey, the panic might have set in, especially for a team that began to see some of the old locker room infighting creeping back.

Asked about his team's five-game losing streak before the game, Vogel said, "Quite honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact we're a big game for teams now. We're not the Indiana Pacers, the .500 or sub-.500 team, another night on the schedule. We're one of the elite teams in the league and they're bringing their best.''

OK, elite is an overstatement at 18-12. But they're pretty good.

So unless Orlando wants to ship Dwight Howard here for Granger, the Pacers would be best to hold on tightly and let this team grow together.

I'm still in love with this team/season. So damn exciting, still, to be 18-12. I don't like how we've gotten here but that's more a testament to what this team makes me believe now. Our defense has been lost,its possible to find it tho. I think we can. Great game by Danny tonight. You could call it clutch i think

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People on Pacers message boards were the only ones who cared about this team for the last three years. Most people in Indy don't want to trade Danny Granger because they don't know who Danny Granger is.

Stopped after I read "It's time to stop talking about all the things Granger doesn't do really well and talk, at least for one minute, about the thing he does really well: Score."

Kravitz is just talking out of his *** like he always does. Danny played well against New Jersey, but I don't recall reading any articles like this at any other point of the year with Danny STILL taking too many shots outside the flow of offense, shooting sub 40% from the field, and continuing his career long downward trend in shooting accuracy. No, Danny does not score "very well". If anything, Kravitz should have used his time complimenting Granger on his increased effort this year. But certainly not on a trait that translates to a career low fg% and one of the worst fg%s in the league.

And "one of those 6 for 20 games". Wonder if Kravitz realizes that a 6/20 game is pretty close to what Danny averages on the season and much more common than his 10/20 tonight. Keep speaking out of your *** Kravie, like you do with just about every one of your articles...

One good game and we crown him as the savior? and yes Kravitz 6 and 20 is more likely to happen.

People here think I hate Danny, I don't, I just hate the way people overrated the crap out him, he is a good player in the mold of Deng, Iguadola, etc but he is best served as the 3rd best player in a championship team.

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I view Danny as a Pau Gasol level star. He can be a team best player and make then a regular season success but chances are they aren't going past the first round. But if you stick him with a better player and he can be the second option a team can do some major damage.

The bad thing for us we can't convince a bigger star to come here or didn't tank enough to get better shot in the Draft Lottery or never seem to slide up in the mysterious drawing or gotten lucky enough since Danny to draft a star player like a Rondo in 06 to build around the core of two cost controlled young stars.

I wish we really knew what was going on in the locker room. Peck has some sources and teased at it last game and now another hint at it in Bob's story only has me more intrigued. Winning is a chemistry Band-Aid but something is obviously is going on in there. Not sure this easy run of game coming up is going to do anything more than cover up the issue until the next rough patch hits or even worse when adversity hits in the playoffs.

12:28 AM, Feb. 17, 2012 | Written by Mike Wells | 1Comments
Team chemistry is one of the most common things I get asked about by fans when it comes to talking about the Pacers.

That’s because the Pacers dealt with their fair share of chemistry problems in the past, including last season. Those chemistry problems often led to a divided locker room.

Not season.

This is a close group of players.

It helps that there’s a solid mix of veterans (especially David West) to go with the young players.

Do the players agree on everything?

Heck no. It would be too easy if that was the case.

Will they have problems again at some point this season?

Likely so.

The players talked amongst themselves to try resolve their issues during their five-game losing streak.

“We had a few circumstances where we were kind of snapping at each other out of timeouts and arguing,” Danny Granger said. “We got together and said if we want to compete then we had to play together and (have) constructive criticism and stop signaling out everybody else when you should probably be looking in the mirror.

“That was our main problem. So once everyone evaluated themselves and said we have to change something individually before we can change it collectively (or) we won’t win. We did that and we won.”

It’s good that the players were able to talk about things without having the coaching staff get involved and take on a babysitting role.

The Pacers hope their victory Thursday will be the start of them getting back on track again. Their next five games – Charlotte (twice), New Orleans (twice) and Golden State – are against teams with a losing record.

This was a great, not good, article about Granger. Way to go, Kravvy! If we're going to be critical of players, be critical of the ones who deserve it:

Collison -- Streaky. A defensive liability. AJ Price played pretty much the entire 4th quarter vs. New Jersey because we couldn't risk DC being on the floor. He's had two games in which he's posted zero assists. Has played his way this season into well-deserved trade bait.

Hansbrough -- By any reasonable measurement, Psycho T has regressed since last season. "Scrappy" can only get you so far in this league. Misses more shots than he makes, flails and flops down the lane like a mean drunk, and the moment he puts the ball on the floor everyone in the arena just waits for the turnover.

Jones -- From his Duke pedigree to his cheap fouls, I hate almost everything about him.

Hibbert -- I realize this violates some unspoken commandment that "Thou shalt not speak ill of 55," but let's be honest for once. Have you ever seen a big man with that size and skillset who has no finishing move at the rim? If Roy is going up with a shot under the basket and is matched up against a defender with any physicality, that's a missed shot more than half the time. Yes, Roy has soft hands, a nice floater, and a sweet hook shot (when he's in rhythm), but a guy that big and that good needs to be dunking balls through defenders' faces. And what is up with his conditioning? Vogel had to pull him for most of the 4th vs. NJ because he looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. As Michael Grady says, "Roy isn't grabbing his knees during timeouts, he's grabbing his ankles."

One good game in a long time? yes, I like to take into consideration the whole package, people love to look the other way when somebody has a good scoring game and they forget about their defense, I don't, it's true that Danny has been scoring better lately but his defense has been horrible, yesterday he looked amazing on D because we played the Nets.

Which part of "[in] last year's playoffs against the Chicago Bulls Granger averaged 21.6 points and never scored fewer than 19 against the best defensive team in the league" did you not understand?

Kravitz nailed this one. Internet fanboys are generally clueless when it comes to Granger. If/when Danny gets traded, that team you saw versus Miami and Cleveland is the Pacers team we'll get, and the Pacers team we'll deserve.

Which part of "[in] last year's playoffs against the Chicago Bulls Granger averaged 21.6 points and never scored fewer than 19 against the best defensive team in the league" did you not understand?

Kravitz nailed this one. Internet fanboys are generally clueless when it comes to Granger. If/when Danny gets traded, that team you saw versus Miami and Cleveland is the Pacers team we'll get, and the Pacers team we'll deserve.

But with the game on the line, the Pacers hanging on to a tenuous 88-84 lead, Granger took the ball strong to the basket, and while he missed the shot, he broke down New Jersey's defense. Roy Hibbert got the rebound and got fouled on the follow. Ballgame.

I also got a huge laugh out of this part of the article, OK so with the game on the line he missed the shot and we are giving him credit for it? OK

If it weren't for this message board there would be very little worthwhile written about the team by anyone who watches them, and most (if not all) of you guys/gals don't even get paid to do it. Kravitz might be trying to be funny here, but the insights on this forum surpass anything from Kravitz or Wells.

Mr. Boyle is an exception, but his words are not in print in the City's rag.

vnzla81, when you break down the defense and get into the lane, it draws defenders and it allows Roy to get the rebound. So, yes, it is a good play, even if it missed.

If he yo-yo'd the basketball and shot a fadeaway 3 pointer off his heels, then that would likely be a miss that didn't help the team.

The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I'm (maybe) back after being repetedly banned, merely for supporting a different NFL team than do certain forum moderators.

If the Pacers had fallen to New Jersey, the panic might have set in, especially for a team that began to see some of the old locker room infighting creeping back.

Ok...ok, I know some are going to jump down my neck, but you have this quote from Bob today and last night Lance only played 4 minutes after getting heavy doses during the losing streak...coincidence or no?

Kravits did get this one right. I've never wanted to see Granger go anywhere. He's seen us through some tough times and never been negative about it. If possible it would be great if he's here to see the good times ahead. Right now we still don't have any player who's ready to step into Grangers shoes. Maybe PG will, and maybe he'll develop into Derrick McKey. Hibbert still isn't there and I don't ever see him as a #1 scoring option. We'll either add to this core at the trade deadline if a bargain is available, or Bird will be very aggressive this summer since it's his last shot to spend money. Either way Granger isn't going anywhere unless it's for a superstar.